DEFENCE OF THE GAINS OF SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM BY THE STATES OF THE SOCIALIST COMMUNITY
Fyodorov
The armed defence of the gains of socialism and communism against military attacks by imperialist aggressors is one of the most important functions of the socialist state. It includes direct armed struggle by the army and the people against aggressors, and the defence of the borders of socialist states, of their territory, their air and sea space. The foreign policy of the socialist state and its domestic social and economic policy also serve to protect the socialist country.
Historico-Conditioned Nature of the Defence of the Socialist Motherland
Since it first emerged the function of defence of the socialist country has changed considerably due to the transformation of the socio-economic basis in the country, the changes in the international situation and in the relation of the socio– political forces in the world. Fundamentally new aspects have emerged in the defence of the socialist country in connection with the formation of the world socialist system.
In the first years of the existence of the Soviet state its function of defence of the socialist country against military attacks fused with that of suppressing the armed resistance of the overthrown exploiters, who had allied themselves 162with the foreign interventionists. Other socialist countries are also resolving this task in the transition period from capitalism to socialism with the help of the fraternal countries.
In the period between the two patriotic wars the armed defence of the socialist country took the form of the defence of its frontiers against military provocations by the capitalist states, the struggle against armed bands, spies and wreckers infiltrating across the borders, the prevention and suppression of attempts by domestic counter-revolutionary forces to organise insurrections, unleash a new civil war and thereby to clear the road for a new military intervention by the imperialists.
The armed defence also included the task of stopping international imperialist reaction from unleashing war against the socialist countries, and where this was impossible, at least of delaying it. The Soviet state pursued a principled flexible foreign policy to achieve that purpose. This policy was promoted by the Soviet Union’s economic successes, which helped to strengthen its defence potential and the military might of its armed forces.
During the Great Patriotic War the entire activity of the Soviet people served the armed defence of the socialist country which was transformed into a single military camp. Under these conditions the fate of the socialist country depended primarily on the solution of the military question.
The function of defence underwent changes in the postwar years, when the Soviet state became a state of the whole people in which the leading role belongs to the working class. This found expression in a substantial extension of the state’s social basis, in the strengthening of the political and ideological unity of society and, hence, in the growth of the country’s defensive might.
An unprecedented upsurge of the forces of peace, democracy and socialism in the world set in after the war. The world socialist system formed and consolidated on a fundamentally different basis than the capitalist system, for the socialist system is a social, economic and political community of free peoples united by close links of international socialist solidarity, by their identical interests and aims, and by their identical Marxist-Leninist principles.
The entry of the world socialist system into a new stage 163of development and the further change in the relation of forces in the world have created new and more favourable conditions and possibilities for the armed defence of the socialist countries.
Before the Second World War the economic and military potential of all capitalist countries taken together exceeded that of the USSR. The world capitalist system accounted for five-sixths of the world territory and over 90 per cent of the world population. It included vast territories inhabited by 1,500 million people in the colonial and dependent countries, which formed a reserve of imperialism. The volume of the industrial output of the bourgeois countries exceeded that of the Soviet Union severalfold. The Soviet Union was the only socialist country in the world and was opposed by the imperialist camp, which was strong even though it was rent by internal antagonisms. The imperialist powers bent every effort to isolate the Soviet Union politically.
It was in such a position that the Soviet Union found itself on the eve of the Second World War. On the West, South and East it was faced by hostile states. There was a constant threat of armed intervention by the united forces of imperialism and the danger of a restoration of the capitalist system by force.
Now the situation has changed. The imperialist camp is confronted by a powerful socialist system, which is commanding enormous resources. Owing to the advantages of its economic and political system, the socialist community can use the resources needed to satisfy its defence needs according to plan, that is, much more effectively than the capitalist states.
pThe victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War helped the peoples in the colonies and dependent countries rise in the struggle for national and social liberation. This led to the collapse of the colonial system. The sphere of the imperialist rule has contracted considerably. Imperialism is no longer able to use the human and material resources of many Asian and some African countries for its war aims.
The situation in the countries bordering on the Soviet Union has also changed. Formerly all of them were part of the imperialist camp, whereas now most of the countries 164bordering on the Soviet Union are either socialist or friendly non-socialist countries. All this means that the capitalist encirclement of the Soviet Union no longer exists.
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, taking full account of the relation of forces between the two opposing systems, has drawn the scientific conclusion that socialism has won in the Soviet Union completely and irrevocably. This means that the possibility of a restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union is excluded. “The combined forces of the socialist camp are a sure guarantee for each socialist country,” the Programme of the CPSU reads, “against encroachments by imperialist reaction. The consolidation of the socialist countries in a single camp, its increasing unity and steadily growing strength, ensures the complete victory of socialism and communism within the framework of the system as a whole." [164•1
Defence of the Socialist Countries in Modern Conditions
In modern conditions the defence of the gains of socialism and communism depends largely on the ability of the socialist states to join their efforts in the face of the danger of imperialist aggression, on their ability to preserve and multiply these gains in the course of the economic competition with the capitalist system. Peace between peoples creates favourable conditions for the building of socialism and communism. This is an objective law.
Proceeding from this law, the Soviet Union and other socialist states spare no effort to create favourable international conditions for the building of socialism and communism. With this end in view they pursue a co-ordinated foreign policy and do all they can to strengthen the unity and cohesion of the socialist countries, their friendship and brotherhood; to support national liberation movements and co-operate in every way with the young developing states; to consistently uphold the principle of peaceful coexistence between states with different social systems; to decisively rebuff the aggressive forces of imperialism, and to save mankind from a new world war.
The economic growth and consolidation of the socialist system, the constant increase in the material welfare and 165culture of the peoples in the socialist countries are the principal and most effective form of influencing the historical process. “We are now exercising our main influence on the international revolution through our economic policy,” Lenin wrote. “... The struggle in this field has now become global. Once we solve this problem, we shall have certainly and finally won on an international scale. That is why for us questions of economic development become of absolutely exceptional importance." [165•1
History is on the side of socialism. The socialist countries advance confidently towards victory over capitalism. Their successes in the peaceful competition with capitalism rest on a solid basis. It consists in the fundamentally different way in which social laws operate under socialism, in the much more perfect economic organisation of society. Let us but consider just two important factors. First, there is the mutual assistance and support of the socialist countries, which, in addition to the new type of international division of labour, enables each country to use its resources and its productive forces to the full and in the most rational way. Second, the socialist countries develop economically at a higher rate than capitalist countries. Stable high economic development rates are one of socialism’s decisive achievements and advantages. Between 1929 and 1966 the average yearly increase in industrial output was 11.1 per cent in the USSR, 4 per cent in the USA, 2.5 per cent in Britain and France. The socialist countries produced in 1966 about ten times more than had been produced on the same territory in 1937, while the industrial output of capitalist countries increased during that period only 3.6-fold.
However, the imperialist countries rely in their struggle against socialism not only on their economic might and their moral and political possibilities. They also use their military potential in full measure. Hence, the change in the relation of forces in favour of peace and socialism is connected also with the growth of the defensive might of the Soviet Union and other socialist states. To create normal conditions as regards international policies for socialist and communist construction, they strengthen their military potential and improve their military organisation.
The wish of the peoples and states of the socialist community to prevent aggression against the socialist countries by means of concerted action led to the conclusion in May 1955 of the Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance Between the European Socialist Countries.
This defensive alliance is based on the community of the interests and aims of the socialist countries. The defence of the socialist gains and of the peaceful labour of the peoples, of their national freedom and state sovereignty, and the consolidation of world peace—such are the noble aims of that alliance.
The Warsaw Treaty was signed as a counter-measure to the setting-up of the imperialist aggressive NATO bloc. It provides for consultations among its participants in the event that one or several socialist states are threatened with attack, and for adopting concerted measures to safeguard peace and to rebuff aggression. It stipulates that the signatories to the Treaty will also take other co-ordinated measures to strengthen their defence potential in order to protect the peaceful labour of their peoples, to guarantee the inviolability of their borders and territories and to ensure the defence against possible aggression. A Unified Military Command of the Armed Forces of the member-states has been set up in accordance with the Treaty.
The signing of the Warsaw defence treaty has considerably extended the possibility of co-ordinating the efforts the socialist countries are taking to rebuff aggressors, of carrying out co-ordinated political, economic and military measures if the imperialists unleash a war against any member of the Warsaw Treaty.
The defensive alliance of the European socialist countries has demonstrated its viability. The member-states are ready jointly to defend the socialist countries against imperialist aggression. The Sofia Meeting of the Political Consultative Committee of the Warsaw Treaty member-states held in March 1968 adopted a Declaration which reaffirmed that they would give full support and every assistance to the Vietnamese people in their fight against imperialist aggression. At Dresden and other meetings the leaders of the Communist and Workers’ Parties of the socialist countries unanimously confirmed their decision to take concrete 167measures in order to strengthen the Warsaw Treaty and its Armed Forces.
In addition to the Warsaw Treaty bilateral treaties on friendship, co-operation and mutual assistance in ensuring security and defence against possible aggression by the imperialists were signed between the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. Recently these contractual relations have grown stronger and been further developed. The SovietCzechoslovak treaty has been extended for another twenty years. New treaties have been signed by the Soviet Union with Poland, Mongolia, Bulgaria and Hungary. Treaties of friendship have been signed between other socialist countries as well.
The socialist countries consider it their common duty to strengthen the defence potential of the community. For historical reasons, however, the main burden in this has fallen on the shoulders of the Soviet people. Defence incurs heavy expenditure, but the Soviet people understand that this spending is unavoidable. Being economically and militarily the strongest power, the Soviet Union places its military might, including its nuclear missile capacity, at the service of collective security, constantly gives considerable help to the fraternal armies and does everything to strengthen the comradeship-in-arms with other socialist states.
The growth of the economic, political and military might of the USSR and other socialist countries has extended the possibility of defending general democratic and socialist revolutions in new countries, of cutting short all attempts to export counter-revolution to those countries. “The Communist Parties, which guide themselves by the Marxist– Leninist doctrine, have always been against the export of revolution. At the same time they fight resolutely against imperialist export of counter-revolution. They consider it their internationalist duty to call on the peoples of all countries to unite, to rally all their internal forces, to act vigorously and, relying on the might of the world socialist system, to prevent or firmly resist imperialist interference in the affairs of any people who have risen in revolution,” [167•1 says the Statement of the Meeting of Representatives of the Communist and Workers’ Parties held in 1960.
The Soviet people have always fulfilled their internationalist duty to the working people rising in revolution against domestic and foreign oppressors. On the eve of the Second World War the Soviet Union assisted the working people of Spain and other countries in which national liberation wars, general democratic and socialist revolutions had taken place. The Soviet Union acted decisively to protect the revolutionary gains of the Cuban people against the US imperialists, who intended to launch a military intervention against Cuba in October 1962. The plans of the imperialists to strangle the Cuban revolution were foiled by the firm stand of Cuba’s revolutionary government, the resolute solidarity of the Cuban people, the military assistance by the Soviet Union and the political and moral support by other socialist countries, by all the peace-loving peoples.
The defence of the socialist countries is now indissoluble from the granting of comprehensive assistance to the national liberation movement of the peoples oppressed by imperialism, and also to the national states which emerged as a result of their liberation from colonial oppression.
As distinct from bourgeois states, socialist states establish relations with other countries on the principles of equality and mutually advantageous economic co-operation, and grant assistance to newly-free countries on privileged terms. A case in point is the help given by the Soviet Union to India in the building of iron and steel works and engineering plants, and also the assistance rendered to the ARE in the building of the Aswan High Dam, the diverse assistance to other young national states in creating and developing their economy.
The socialist countries are now playing a much more important role in ensuring world peace. Today more than ever before, the security of the socialist countries is inseparable from the task of preserving universal peace. The Soviet Union and other socialist countries therefore pursue an active foreign policy directed at eliminating hotbeds of military conflict and at cutting short imperialist aggressive actions in every corner of the world. These countries use their economic, political and military potentials to strengthen peace and friendship between peoples. “The revolutionary gains of our people, and those of others,” the 23rd Congress of the CPSU noted, “would be in jeopardy if they 169were not shielded, directly or indirectly, by the immense military strength of the countries of the socialist community and above all that of the Soviet Union. If at times the imperialists are apprehensive of doing what they would like, they are restrained solely by the knowledge of the risk this entails for them." [169•1
Thus, by defending the peaceful construction of socialism and communism, and by ensuring the security of the socialist countries, the Soviet socialist state, together with other socialist countries, defends the peace and security of all peoples.
While there is an aggressive imperialist camp, the Soviet state and other socialist countries must strengthen their defence capacity, maintain the battleworthiness of their armed forces at the highest level.
The International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties held in 1969 reaffirmed that the socialist system is the bulwark of the world anti-imperialist, revolutionary movement and that the defence of the socialist gains is the internationalist duty of Communists of all countries.
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Notes
[164•1] The Road to Communism, Moscow, 1962, p. 465.
[165•1] V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 32, p. 437.
[167•1] The Struggle for Peace, Democracy and Socialism, Moscow, 1961, p. 73.
[169•1] 23rd Congress of the CPSU, Moscow, 1966, p. 267.
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